Yankees Send Message By Benching Gary Sanchez

Last year Gary Sanchez burst onto the seen putting up offensive numbers comparable to Babe Ruth himself. The work Sanchez did with the bat was amazing but more impressive was the way this 23 year old called games and played defense behind the plate. The pitchers all seemed at ease with every pitch he called and he had a proverbial "cannon" back there throwing out almost anyone who dared try to steal second base.

What a difference a year makes as murmurs of a lack of effort on defense from Sanchez turned into rumblings and then warnings from the manager and now a benching. Gary Sanchez thought he would be the starting catcher for today's 8 - 1 win over the Cleveland Indians but that wasn't the case. When Sanchez read the lineup Austin Romine was listed as catcher even though he caught last night and catching a day game after a night is not the norm.

When asked about the message he was sending, Joe Girardi said "The start is not the message, The message came from us verbally that, 'Your defense needs to improve. That you need to get better. You need to work at it.' We have stressed how important it is. There are certain situations that some people may not think that something that happens in the game affects the next game. It could if it leads to 10 extra pitches for a reliever."